Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

100 THE WRECK,
experienced, was taken for the same; but
we were soon undeceived by her striking
again more violently than before, which laid
her upon her beam ends, the sea making a
fair breach over her. Every person that now
could stir was presently upon the quarter¬
deck; and many even of those were alert
upon this occasion, that had not showed their
faces upon deck for above two months before :
several poor wretches, who were in the last
stage of the scurvy, and who could not get
out of their hammocks, were immediately
drowned.
In this dreadful situation she lay for some
little time, every soul on board looking upon
the present minute as his last; for there was
nothing to be seen but breakers all around us.
However, a mountainous sea hove her off
from thence, but she presently struck again,
and broke her tiller. In this terrifying and
critical juncture, to have observed all the
various modes of horror operating according
to the several characters and complexions
amongst us, it was necessary that the observer
himself should have been free from all impres¬
sions of danger. Instances there were, however,
of behaviour so very remarkable, that they